The Alpha King And His Chosen Luna novel Chapter 277

The line must continue

(Caius)

+25 Points

Pointe

Lyrienne kept her eyes on Isla after answering. Three centuries of searching had given her pieces, but never the wolf responsible for what happened. I understood that kind of frustration better than most. Every answer we’d found had uncovered another secret.

“How close did you get?” I asked.

“Close enough to know Corvin wasn’t working for himself.”

Isla looked at her mother. We’d reached the same conclusion in Silvermere after learning how much Corvin had known. He had access to the exact plans for Isla’s journey. Someone else had given him that information.

“Did you find anyone connected to him?” Isla asked.

“Several wolves.”

Lyrienne released Isla’s hand and went to the shelves again. She removed a stack of papers held together with an old cord. When she returned, she placed them in front of us. Names and dates covered the first page.

“These are everyone I found who had contact with Corvin.”

I moved the papers closer. Some names had notes beside them while others had been crossed out. Lyrienne had followed Corvin’s movements across several territories. His work carrying messages had given him access to more wolves than we’d realized.

“Most of these wolves are dead,” I said.

“All of them.”

That wasn’t surprising after three centuries. Whoever had started this could have died long before Isla woke. But the secrets had survived.

Isla turned another page. Her finger stopped beside a name connected to the High Council. The wolf had served there during the years before her birth. Several meetings with Corvin were recorded beside his name.

aid

was born. That

The line must continue

alone didn’t prove he knew about the plan to take her. Still, it was enough to matter.

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“He died before I could question him.”

Isla continued through the papers. There were two other Council names among them, though neither had direct meetings with Corvin recorded. Lyrienne had written questions beside both. She had clearly suspected the Council long before we did.

“Do you think Varen ordered it?” Isla asked.

“I don’t know.”

Lyrienne wasn’t going to accuse someone without proof. I respected that. After everything she’d uncovered, she still knew the difference between suspicion and fact.

“Did the trail end with him?” I asked.

“No.”

Lyrienne pulled another paper from beneath the others. It contained several family names rather than individual wolves. Some had disappeared over the centuries while others still existed. I recognized more than one.

“What are these?” Isla asked.

“The families connected to the Council members I investigated.”

I looked through the list. There were territories from the north, west, and several that no longer existed. Nothing on the page told me which family mattered most. That might have been why Lyrienne had kept all of them.

“Someone continued it,” Isla said.

“I believe so.”

That matched what we’d already discovered. Evander couldn’t have started something that happened centuries before his birth. Yet he’d known enough about Isla to order Rodan to use wolfsbane chains on her.

“Evander knew something,” I said.

Lyrienne looked at me.

“Who is Evander?”

I explained who he was and what we’d discovered before leaving Wraithbone. He had used Rodan

The line must continue

to keep Isla controlled in Ashcrest. When the truth came out, he’d been taken into custody. Lyrienne listened without interrupting.

“He wasn’t the beginning,” isla said.

“No.”

+25 Points

Lyrienne looked through the records again. If Evander had learned about Isla through someone else, there could be a chain stretching across generations. That would explain how knowledge of Isla survived while she slept.

“We need to know who taught Evander about you,” I said.

Isla nodded.

“And why they still cared after three hundred years.”

That was the part that concerned me most. Hiding a Celestial child was one thing. Continuing to watch her centuries later meant whatever began with Corvin had never truly ended. Someone had been waiting for Isla to wake.

Lyrienne reached for another record. This one contained only a few lines. She pushed it toward me. A Council seal had been drawn beside the writing.

“I found this almost two hundred years ago.”

I read it.

The child remains beyond reach. The line must continue until she returns.

Isla moved closer. Her eyes stayed on the words. Whoever wrote the message had expected her to return eventually. Her protected sleep hadn’t been intended to last forever.

“Where did you find this?” Isla asked.

“Inside an abandoned Council residence.”

I looked at Lyrienne.

“Whose residence?”

“Varen’s.”

That brought us closer, but Varen had been dead by then. Someone had preserved the message after his death. The words about continuing the line suggested others had inherited whatever responsibility he’d carried.

“Do you know what line means?” I asked.

2.4

The line must continue

“I thought it meant a family line.”

+25 Points

Isla looked at the list of families again. I could see her trying to connect names separated by centuries. We needed Pryor for that. Wraithbone’s archives could tell us which of those bloodlines

still existed.

“We take copies back with us,” I said.

“Take the originals.”

I looked at Lyrienne.

“You’re coming with us.”

She became still.

Isla turned toward her mother. She hadn’t asked the question yet, but I knew she wanted Lyrienne to return to Wraithbone. After finding her, leaving her here wasn’t something Isla would accept

easily.

“Come home with us,” Isla said.

Lyrienne looked at her daughter. The answer seemed difficult for reasons I didn’t understand. She had spent centuries waiting for this moment.

“I can’t leave yet,” Lyrienne said.

Isla stared at her.

“Why?”

Lyrienne looked toward the mountain beyond the window. Her attention remained there for several seconds. Then she turned back to us.

“Because there is something beneath this mountain I’ve been protecting.”

I watched her carefully.

“What?”

Lyrienne looked at Isla.

“The reason Celestials began here.”

10

Comments

LOK DRAW >

Vote

1.4K

Celestial names to reach this place. I thought that was what my mother’s message had

eant. Now she was telling me there was more.

“What are you protecting?”

Lyrienne stood from the table.

“Something that belongs to

I looked at Caius before

Raith remained near

“Show me.”

Lyrienne loo

“I wa

sk.”

was already watching my mother with interest. Zeron and

er interrupted.

pers and placed them inside a wooden box. The records about Varen

for us to take later. Then she walked toward another door near the back of

d her.

d onto a narrow path. It ran behind the home and disappeared between two stone noticed it when we’d arrived. Lyrienne waited until everyone joined us.

es this go?” I asked.

r into the mountain.”

a became interested immediately. She could feel something before we had taken more than a

w steps. It wasn’t Lyrienne this time. Whatever she sensed seemed to surround us.

What is that?‘

fon’t know!’

at surp

hout ever seeing her. She had known beneath the mountain was unfamiliar even

the path. It ended at another opening in the stone. Unlike the entrance e, symbols covered both sides. I recognized several from the cavern.

1.0

The celestial stone

“These are Celestial markings.”

Lyrienne nodded.

“Some are older than our written records.”

+25 Point

Caius moved closer to one of them. I watched him study the markings without touching them.

Vorak seemed interested through our bond. Whatever Vaela felt, he could feel something too.

“Who made them?” Caius asked.

“The earliest Celestials we know existed.”

I looked at Lyrienne.

“You said Celestials began here.”

She entered the passage.

“Come with me.”

We followed her inside. The passage wasn’t long, and daylight disappeared behind us as we continued. Light came from stones set into the walls. I didn’t understand how they still worked.

The passage opened into another cavern. I stopped when I saw what stood in the center. A large stone circle rose from the ground. The divided symbol covered its surface.

“What is that?”

Lyrienne came beside me.

“The Celestial Stone.”

I stared at it. Vaela moved closer, but she didn’t speak. Something about the stone seemed to have her complete attention. I walked toward it.

“What does it do?”

“It chooses.”

1

I stopped

“Chooses what?”